Note: It's trial day, at last! I hope you find it worth waiting for.

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Thursday afternoon

"I said 2 p.m.," says Cole, pacing back and forth in the sunroom. "We should already be there by now. Where's he?"

Phoebe and Piper exchange an uncertain look, but say nothing. Phoebe is sitting on a wicker chair with Ben in her arms: under different circumstances, the sight of Ben following his father's incessant pacing with intrigued eyes would amuse her, but right now she's starting to get worried with Leo's failure to show up and orb them to the trolls' village.

"He'll be here, Cole," says Piper, stopping her own pacing and pulling another chair to sit next to Phoebe. "Something must have come up."

"I'm sure it did, Piper," says Cole, "but the judge won't want to hear about that. If I don't show up for the trial, Sarsour will be as good as dead."

Piper starts to say something, but then they see the swirling blue lights appearing next to Cole, and she and Phoebe promptly stand up. Much to their surprise, though, when the lights settle down they see Paige, not Leo, standing there and looking at them in no less bewilderment.

"You're still here," says Paige.

"So it seems," says Cole, bitterly.

"Hum, what happened?" Paige asks, turning to Piper.

"Apparently Leo had a situation," says Piper, cautiously.

"Oh." Paige bites her lower lip, hesitantly, then asks: "Do you think I could, uh... orb you there?"

Paige's white skin turns crimson as the others give her very surprised looks.

"I told my boss I wasn't feeling well," she says, shrugging. "I intended to call out for Leo from here, but since you're all still here, and he seems to be busy somewhere else... Do you think I'd be able to orb you to the trolls' village?"

"Well, I don't know," says Cole. "Leo knew where the trolls' village was. Do you?"

Just then, Leo orbs in.

"I'm sorry," he says, "I'll explain it on the way, let's just..." -- he spots Paige and gives her a surprised look.

Paige shrugs, embarrassed, but before Leo can question her, Cole puts his hand on his shoulder, saying:

"She can tell her story on the way, too; can we please go?"

"Right," says Leo, putting his arm around Piper's waist and holding Cole's wrist. "Paige, can you follow me?" Paige nods in accordance and he adds: "Good; take Phoebe and Ben with you."

Paige takes Phoebe's hand and soon they all disappear in a twist of blue lights.

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Cole draws slow, deep breaths, hoping he can steady his heartbeat before it's time to begin his opening speech. When Leo orbed him and Piper to the trolls' village, he waited long enough to be sure Paige had orbed Phoebe and Ben safely, and left them behind, rushing up the stone steps that lead to the courtroom. Once inside, he walked quickly to where Sarsour was, feeling a pang of guilt as he saw the intense relief in his friend's eyes as this one saw him.

"Sorry," he whispered, already walking past Sarsour and heading towards the judge, an old troll with a sour face framed by grayish hair.

"Cole Turner, representing the defendant, your honor," he said, in a voice that he expected showed none of his tension.

"It was about time," grunted the judge, barely looking at him.

Now, sitting by Sarsour side and watching as the prosecutor stands up and walks heavily to the middle of the room, Cole turns around and glances a look at his family, sitting three seats behind. They all look very small, sitting on that seat made to accommodate trolls. Leo and Paige can barely touch the ground with their feet, while Piper and Phoebe have their legs hanging freely over the edge of the seat. Phoebe's eyes meet his and she smiles, and Cole winks at her before turning towards the prosecutor again, as this one stops before the jury. All other thoughts are swept from Cole's mind, and he leans forward and watches as the prosecutor starts his opening speech.

"Our food has been stolen," he says. "The fruit of our hard work, stolen right under our noses!"

Cole watches apprehensively as a wave of rage passes through the audience and the jury. Even the judge frowns as the prosecutor reminds them of the reason for this trial.

"An offense like this cannot remain unpunished," proceeds the prosecutor. "We found and captured the spy that helped the thieves..."

"Objection!" says Cole, jumping to his feet. Ignoring the dirty look the prosecutor addresses him, he proceeds: "Your honor, my client has declared himself not guilty. The jury, not the prosecutor, is supposed to determine whether he's telling the truth or not."

"Sustained," says the judge, with obvious unwillingness, and Cole sits back by Sarsour's side.

"The thieves had the help of a spy," proceeds the prosecutor. Cole considers raising an objection again, since this point hasn't been proven; then again, he doubts the judge will sustain many of his objections, so he chooses to save his shots. "We have reasons to believe that the defendant," the prosecutor proceeds, pointing at Sarsour, who winces at the rancorous looks the audience addresses him, "is this spy, and I'm here to prove it. And when I do, our people will be avenged."

With this, the prosecutor goes back to his chair, and gives Cole a defiant look, a look that Cole ignores the best he can as he stands up and goes take the place the troll has just left empty in the middle of the room.

"The fruit of months of hard work has been stolen from you," he says, gravely. "As the prosecutor said, this was a grave offense, one that mustn't remain unpunished." One juror raises his eyebrows, and two of them give Cole slightly intrigued looks. Shouldn't the human be defending his client? Seeing that he's caught their attention, Cole proceeds: "But your rage shouldn't be wasted on someone other than the ones responsible for your loss. If my client had been the spy the prosecution alleges he is, I'd be the first one to support your wish to crush him. I'm here to prove he's not and, by doing so, to allow you to go after the real criminals, the ones upon which your much-justified wrath should fall. If you don't -- if you punish the wrong person..."

Cole takes one step towards the jury, and lowers his voice slightly, as if he is telling them a secret. The jurors seem to be hypnotized by his voice, and two of them actually lean forward to better listen to him.

"That'll mean you've left the real thieves get away with this. You'll have lost your grains, my client will have lost his life... and the thieves will have won."

Cole stands still for a moment, watching as the meaning of his words sink in, then he thanks the jurors for their attention and goes back to his seat.

As he sits by Sarsour's side, Cole is barely aware of the murmur running through the crowd as the trolls try to adjust to the idea that killing the demon sitting on the defendant's seat won't necessarily be the best solution. As he feels the familiar wave of adrenaline starting to course through his body, the one he hasn't felt in months, he remembers why he used to love this game, why he still does. Cole smiles mildly as the prosecutor stands up to call the first prosecution witness: it's show time.